Contents

History

The original Brown Mackie College was founded in 1892 in
Salina, Kansas[8][9] as the Kansas Wesleyan School of Business.[10] In 1938, two of its former instructors, Perry E. Brown and
A.B. Mackie, incorporated the school as The Brown Mackie School of Business.[11][12] The school was licensed by the
Kansas Board of Regents to grant associate degrees in 1986.[13]

Between the 1930s and 1990s the school in Salina, and other schools that would later carry the Brown Mackie name, were managed by several different organizations before being purchased by American Education Centers (AEC) in 1993.[11] In 2003,
Education Management Corporation (EDMC) acquired eighteen schools from AEC, including the original Brown Mackie College. The following year, EDMC rebranded all of the AEC schools under the Brown Mackie name.[14][15] Throughout the mid-to-late 2000s EDMC expanded the Brown Mackie system through the construction of new Brown Mackie colleges.[9]

In 2011, investigations into the recruiting practices of the school were launched by the Attorneys General of Kentucky and Indiana.[16][17]

Beginning in the spring of 2012, Brown Mackie began a pilot program to test the use of
iPads and
e-textbooks in place of traditional textbooks. Later the program was expanded to all 28 schools in the Brown Mackie system. In preparation for the transition, Brown Mackie partnered with
Apple Inc. to train faculty members help students with the iPads. As of February 2013, 13,000 Brown Mackie students were participating in the program.[18][19]

In 2014, Brown Mackie College teamed up with the Smart Horizons and
Cengage to recruit low-income high school dropouts for high school completion. The program would be offered at Brown Mackie schools in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Phoenix, St. Louis, North Canton, and Louisville.[20]

In May 2013, Education Management Corporation reported that it owned 28 Brown Mackie College campuses with a total enrollment of 17,000 students.[1][19] More recent numbers are unavailable. According to Brown Mackie's website the system has "over 25 schools."[23]

Lawsuits, investigations, and settlements

In 2015, EDMC, Brown-Mackie's parent company, agreed to forgive more than $100.8 million in student loan debt held by more than 80,000 former students.[54]

In 2016, eleven former Brown Mackie nursing students in Tucson, Arizona sued the school for
consumer fraud. The plaintiffs alleged that the poor training they received left them unable to be gainfully employed.[5] The plaintiffs expected to graduate in 2015 until a state nursing board investigation found some of the school's faculty were unqualified and were using veterinary supplies to teach students how to care for human patients. The Arizona nursing board barred the Brown Mackie students from taking the practical nurses licensing exam and ordered the school to retrain the students at the company's expense.[55]

Loan Forgiveness

Thousands of former Brown Mackie College students will receive loan forgiveness as part of a legal settlement with the US government. Part of the settlement forgives more than $100 million in student loans to students who left Brown Mackie within 45 days of their first term between 2006 and 2014. Each qualifying former student and each of the credit reporting agencies were to be notified of the settlement, and the settlement will be paid through 2022.[56]